Wiesbaden (dpa/lhe) - At the end of last year, the municipalities in Hesse were indebted at 5313 euros per capita. That was the second highest value among the federal states, as reported by the Federal Statistical Office in Wiesbaden on Wednesday. Saarland had the highest per capita debt, Brandenburg the lowest. Nationwide, the municipalities were indebted at the end of the year with 299.7 billion euros - this corresponded to a debt of 3895 euros per capita.
Municipalities and municipal associations including their holdings were included in the model calculation. In addition to the debts of the core budgets, the debts of the extra budgets and other public funds, institutions and companies, such as school associations or transport companies, were also included. The city-states are not included. At the end of 2021, this so-called integrated municipal debt was 4.1 percent higher than at the beginning of 2021.
The statisticians were able to partially reconstruct the influencing factors based on the numbers. In Rhineland-Palatinate, for example, the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley had a negative impact on the balance sheet, while the trade taxes in Mainz and Idar-Oberstein had a positive effect. Housing construction had the greatest influence in Hesse: According to Destatis, "in particular, municipal units in the housing construction and urban development sector led to a build-up of debt totaling 4.1 percent."
